Thursday, July 1, 2010

Baby Red-Tailed Hawk Rescued In The South Bronx

A red-tailed hawk was rescued on Saturday by local environmentalists after falling from an air-conditioner in the South Bronx. (Photo: Geoffrey Croft, NYC Park Advocates)

Bronx

A baby hawk was rescued from a South Bronx street on Sunday by a quick-thinking resident, who enlisted the help of an expert falconer and a local environmental group, according to Examiner.com.

The red-tailed hawk, believed to be just 70 days old, was living on top of an air conditioner near 149th Street and 3rd Avenue in the South Bronx.

The mother hawk had disappeared and concerned residents were monitoring the nest to see if the father would return.

Lee Rivera acted quickly when the bird fell. He scooped it up and brought it to Brook Park, where head gardener Danny Chervoni and members of Friends of Brook Park helped fashion a makeshift cage using two milk crates secured with rope.

After an hour-long boat trip up the Harlem River, the hawk was treated by Ludger K.Balan, a licensed falconer and executive director of The Urban Divers.

Surprisingly, this was not the first hawk rescue in the South Bronx.

"We've rescued a hawk before in similar circumstances and brought it to Ludger," said Harry Bubbins, director of Friends of Brook Park.

What set this rescue apart was the dramatic way the hawk was brought to safety-- on a canoe.

Canoe rescue

When Lee Rivera arrived at Brook Park clutching the hawk in his bare hands, members of Friends of Brook Park were getting ready for a canoe trip up the Harlem River. They planned to paddle from the South Bronx to Manhattan in support of Friends of Sherman Creek, a community group dedicated to preserving local wetlands.

"I look over and I see this guy clasping this bird," recalled NYC Park Advocates president Geoffrey Croft, who was loading life jackets for the canoe trip.

"He walked with this bird through the streets of the South Bronx to this green oasis called Brook Park. I looked up and thought, you never know what you are going to see [in New York].

A red-tailed hawk, believed to be less than two months old, was brought to Brook Park. The young raptor was then transported by canoe to a licensed falconer. (Photo: Geoffrey Croft, NYC Park Advocates)